The Yaroslavl City History Museum presents a portrait of Patriarch Tikhon. This is an oil-on-canvas painting.
Patriarch Tikhon (born Vasily Bellavin, 1865–1925) was the first patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church following the restoration of the patriarchate in 1917. During his tenure, which coincided with a period of revolutions and religious persecution, Tikhon endeavored to preserve the autonomy of the church and uphold its values despite intense pressure from the Soviet government. He was arrested in 1922, yet, facing trials, he continued to champion the fundamental principles of the church. Patriarch Tikhon was canonized as a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1989.
This is a waist-length portrait of an elderly man wearing traditional church attire. He is depicted against a greenish-brown backdrop. The venerable elder has graying hair, thick eyebrows, a rounded beard, and a long mustache. His facial features are quite prominent: a nose with a thin ridge and a large spherical tip; a plethora of wrinkles around his small light-brown eyes; two vertical folds above the bridge of his nose. All this speaks of the patriarch’s firm character and extraordinary mind. He is depicted in a dark red vestment with long wide sleeves and a small collar. There are many small dark-red round buttons arranged in a row. On his chest, there are two panagia or engolpions (symbols of Orthodox bishops) hanging on two gold chains on top of his clothes — these are two small oval-shaped icons in an ornate gold frame decorated with precious stones. On his head is a white patriarchal koukoulion. It is a headdress in the form of a hood with a domed upper part topped with a golden cross. There is a yellow image of a six-winged seraphim on the front part of the koukoulion. Patriarch Tikhon is leaning back in his chair, with both hands resting on the armrests. A rosary is hanging on the wrist of his left hand. In the fingers of his left hand is a long yellow staff with a figured top.
The portrait was painted by Sergey Nikolayevich Sokolov, an artist, iconographer, muralist, and member of the Russian Union of Artists. Sergey Sokolov was born on July 27, 1956 in the city of Kineshma, Ivanovo Oblast. He graduated from the Ivanovo Art School, and later the painting department of the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after Ilya Repin. He has participated in regional, republican, All-Union and international (Germany, France) exhibitions. The artist’s works are kept in the collection of the Yaroslavl Art Museum, as well as in many Russian and foreign private collections.
